1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a test and repair system and a test and repair method for testing a plurality of members to be processed mounted at plurality of member mounting positions of a member transfer jig, respectively, to determine whether each of them is favorable or defective and for repairing a member to be processed which is determined as defective, a member test apparatus and a member test method for testing a plurality of members to be processed mounted at a plurality of member mounting positions of a member transfer jig, respectively, to determine whether each of them is acceptable or defective, a data processing apparatus and a data processing method for communicating data with the member test apparatus, a member repair apparatus and a member repair method for communicating data with the data processing apparatus, and an information storage medium for storing programs as software for causing a computer to execute various processing operations.
2. Description of the Related Art
At present, circuit products such as LSIs (Large Scale Integrated circuit) are manufactured by forming semiconductor circuits on a silicon wafer, and improvements are desired in the integration degree and productivity. At a typical site of manufacturing, various operations are managed on the basis of a unit referred to as operation lot for mass-producing such circuit products as planned with high yields.
For example, when one operation lot is set to include 25 silicon wafers, each manufacturing carrier serving as a member transfer jig is also provided with 25 holding slots serving as member mounting positions such that each silicon wafer serving as a member to be processed is removably mounted in each of the holding slots. Since the transfer of such manufacturing carriers allows silicon wafers to be moved in operation lots, a number of silicon wafers can be processed in operation lots.
At the site of manufacturing where a number of silicon wafers are moved in operation lots with the manufacturing carrier in this manner, various manufacturing processing apparatuses are arranged along the manufacturing line for individually performing a number of manufacturing steps, and the silicon wafers are transferred in operation lots to each of the manufacturing processing apparatuses with the manufacturing carrier.
At such a manufacturing site, unique identification data is provided to each of a number of silicon wafers, a plurality of operation lots, and a plurality of manufacturing carriers, and identification data is provided to each of a plurality of holding slots for each manufacturing carrier. The operation states are managed on the basis of the identification data.
Since current highly-integrated circuit products require frequent tests in the manufacturing process, various member test apparatuses are disposed at respective positions along the aforementioned manufacturing line. Such a member test apparatus comprises test supporting means including guide rails or robot arms which removably support a manufacturing carrier to be tested.
A plurality of silicon wafers mounted on the manufacturing carrier thus supported are tested by quality determining means to determine whether each of them is acceptable or defective, and if all the silicon wafers mounted on one manufacturing carrier are determined as acceptable, the manufacturing carrier is transferred to the next manufacturing processing apparatus along the manufacturing line.
If any defective silicon wafer is found by the member test apparatus, however, the identification data of the manufacturing carrier and the holding slot associated with the wafer are displayed on a display of the member test apparatus, for example. In this case, an operator who recognized the displayed data on the display of the member test apparatus once removes the manufacturing carrier from the manufacturing line to extract the defective silicon wafer from the holding slot associated therewith, and mounts the defective silicon wafer on another repair carrier to newly set an operation lot dedicated to repair.
For example, when all the holding slots of the repair carrier are loaded with silicon wafers, the repair carrier is transferred to a member repair apparatus arranged independently of the manufacturing line. The member repair apparatus also comprises repair supporting means including guide rails or the like which removably support the repair carrier.
All the silicon wafers mounted on the repair carrier thus supported are repaired in sequence by the member repair apparatus. The repair carrier with its silicon wafers all repaired is again subjected to a test by an operator using the member test apparatus, for example, to ensure the completion of the repair.
The repair carrier in which the completion of the repair is ensured for all the silicon wafers is again transferred to the manufacturing line by an operator, and the silicon wafers are returned to the holding slots of the original manufacturing carriers from the repair carrier. The manufacturing carriers are returned to the manufacturing line since only acceptable silicon wafers are mounted on the manufacturing carriers.
A silicon wafer which is determined as defective after the second test is subjected to additional repair, for example, and a silicon wafer on which a predetermined number of repairs and tests are repeated is discarded. When a silicon wafer is discarded in this manner, its manufacturing carrier is returned to the manufacturing line after another silicon wafer is replenished, for example.
At the manufacturing site where semiconductor circuits are formed on silicon wafers as described above, since a defective silicon wafer is repaired, circuit products can be mass-produced with high yields and with a minimized number of discarded silicon wafers.
The aforementioned manufacturing site, however, requires that the operator extracts the silicon wafer which has been determined as defective from the manufacturing carrier to mount it on the repair carrier and returns the silicon wafer for which repair is completed to the holding slot of the original manufacturing carrier from the repair carrier. These operations are complicated and easily cause erroneous transfer of silicon wafers.
In addition, since the repair operation is performed in operation lots similarly to the normal operation, it is necessary to form an operation lot dedicated to the repair from defective silicon wafers. As a result, the repair operation is performed only after a predetermined number of defective silicon wafers are accumulated on a repair carrier, resulting in significant delay of manufacturing operations for a manufacturing carrier in which a defective silicon wafer is present.
The present invention is made in view of the aforementioned problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide at least one of a test and repair system and a test and repair method capable of repairing a defective silicon wafer without requiring complicated operations, a member test apparatus and a member test method in the test and repair system and method, a data processing apparatus and a data processing method in the test and repair system and method, a member repair apparatus and a member repair method in the test and repair system and method, and an information storage medium for storing programs as software for causing a computer to execute the data processing method with the data processing apparatus.
The test and repair system of the present invention comprises a member test apparatus for testing a plurality of members to be processed mounted at a plurality of member mounting positions of a member transfer jig, respectively, to determine whether each of the members is acceptable or defective, and a member repair apparatus for repairing the member to be processed which is determined as defective by the member test apparatus, and further comprises a data processing apparatus for integrating and controlling the member test apparatus and the member repair apparatus;
wherein the member test apparatus comprises:
test supporting means for removably supporting the member transfer jig;
quality determining means for testing the plurality of members to be processed mounted on the member transfer jig supported by the test supporting means to determine whether each of the members is acceptable or defective;
processing storage means for storing processing state data in which each of position identification data provided for each of the plurality of member mounting positions corresponds to one of a plurality of member current state data for representing a current state of the member to be processed for each member transfer jig tested by the quality determining means;
data update means for updating the member current state data in the processing state data stored in the processing storage means in accordance with the result of the determination by the quality determining means; and
state transmitting means for transmitting the processing state data updated by the data update means to the data processing apparatus,
the data processing apparatus comprises:
state receiving means for receiving the processing state data from the member test apparatus;
data managing means for managing the processing state data received by the state receiving means; and
repair transmitting means for transmitting repair instruction data to the member repair apparatus in accordance with the processing state data managed by the data managing means,
the member repair apparatus comprises:
repair receiving means for receiving the repair instruction data from the data processing apparatus;
repair supporting means for removably supporting the member transfer jig;
repair performing means for repairing the member to be processed mounted on the member transfer jig supported by the repair supporting means; and
repair control means for selectively controlling the repair operation of the repair performing means for each of the member mounting positions of the member transfer jig in accordance with the repair instruction data received by the repair receiving means.
Therefore, in the test and repair method with the test and repair system of the present invention, the member test apparatus tests the plurality of members to be processed mounted at the plurality of member mounting positions of the member transfer jig, respectively, to determine whether each of the members is acceptable or defective, and the member to be processed determined as defective is repaired by the member repair apparatus.
In this case, in the member test apparatus, the test supporting means removably supports the member transfer jig, the quality determining means tests the plurality of members to be processed mounted on the supported member transfer jig to determine whether each of the members is acceptable or defective. On the other hand, the processing storage means stores the processing state data in which each of the position identification data provided for each of the plurality of member mounting positions corresponds to one of the plurality of member current state data for representing a current state of the member to be processed for each member transfer jig tested by the quality determining means, the data update means updates the member current state data in the stored processing state data in accordance with the result of the determination by the quality determining means, and the state transmitting means transmits the updated processing state data to the data processing apparatus.
In the data processing apparatus, the state receiving means receives the processing state data from the member test apparatus, the data managing means manages the received processing state data, and the repair transmitting means transmits the repair instruction data to the member repair apparatus in accordance with the managed processing state data.
In the member repair apparatus, the repair supporting means removably supports the member transfer jig, and the repair performing means repairs the member to be processed mounted on the supported member transfer jig. The repair receiving means receives the repair instruction data from the data processing apparatus, and the repair control means selectively controls the repair operation of the repair performing means for each of the member mounting positions of the member transfer jig in accordance with the received repair instruction data.
In this manner, in the test and repair method with the test and repair system of the present invention, even when a defect is found in some of the plurality of members to be processed transferred collectively on the member transfer jig, the defective member to be processed is transferred and repaired while it is mounted on the member transfer jig. As a result, it is not necessary to extract the defective member to be processed from the member transfer jig for normal operation to mount it on a member transfer jig dedicated to repair.
In addition, the condition of the defect occurrence in the member transfer jig is set by the member test apparatus in the processing state data which is transferred to the data processing apparatus from the member test apparatus, thereby allowing the data processing apparatus to control the condition of the defect occurrence in the member transfer jig.
Furthermore, the defective member to be processed is transferred to the member repair apparatus while it is mounted on the member transfer jig together with acceptable members to be processed, but the member repair apparatus repairs the defective member to be processed on the basis of the repair instruction data which is transmitted corresponding to the processing state data to the member repair apparatus from the data processing apparatus.
In the test and repair system as described above, the data processing apparatus may comprise mounting managing means for managing mounting state data in which member identification data provided for respective ones of the plurality of members to be processed correspond to the position identification data for each member transfer jig, data integrating means for integrating the mounting state data with the processing state data to create integration state data, and integration managing means for managing the integration state data created by the data integrating means.
In this case, in the data processing apparatus, the mounting managing means manages the mounting state data in which the member identification data provided for respective ones of the plurality of members to be processed correspond to the position identification data for each member transfer jig, and the data integrating means integrates the mounting state data with the processing state data to create the integration state data. The integration managing means manages the created integration state data. Therefore, data can be managed with the member identification data provided respectively for the members to be processed corresponding to the member current state data for representing the current states of the members to be processed.
A product manufacturing system of the present invention, including the test and repair system according to the present invention as its part, comprises jig transfer means for sequentially transferring the member transfer jig, various types of manufacturing processing apparatuses disposed on a transfer path of the jig transfer means for performing various types of manufacturing steps on the member to be processed, respectively, and the test and repair system including the member test apparatus disposed in a stage next to a particular one of the manufacturing processing apparatuses.
Therefore, in the product manufacturing system of the present invention, since the jig transfer means sequentially transfers the member transfer jig, the various types of manufacturing processing apparatuses disposed on the transfer path perform the various types of manufacturing steps on the member to be processed, respectively. The member test apparatus in the test and repair system is disposed in the stage next to the particular one of the manufacturing processing apparatuses, and the member test apparatus tests the state of the particular manufacturing step and the member repair apparatus performs repair as required.
In the aforementioned product manufacturing system, the data processing apparatus in the test and repair system may integrate and control the manufacturing processing apparatuses. In this case, since the manufacturing processing apparatuses are integrated and controlled by the data processing apparatus, the states of the manufacturing steps for the members to be processed are also controlled as data.
The member test apparatus of the present invention, for testing a plurality of members to be processed mounted at a plurality of member mounting positions of a member transfer jig, respectively, to determine whether each of the members is acceptable or defective, comprises test supporting means for removably supporting the member transfer jig, quality determining means for testing the plurality of members to be processed mounted on the member transfer jig supported by the test supporting means to determine whether each of the members is acceptable or defective, processing storage means for storing processing state data in which each of position identification data provided for each of the plurality of member mounting positions corresponds to one of a plurality of member current state data for representing a current state of the member to be processed for each member transfer jig tested by the quality determining means, data update means for updating the member current state data in the processing state data stored in the processing storage means in accordance with the result of the determination by the quality determining means, and state transmitting means for transmitting the processing state data updated by the data update means to the outside.
The data processing apparatus of the present invention for communicating data with the member test apparatus according to the present invention comprises state receiving means for receiving the processing state data from the member test apparatus, data managing means for managing the processing state data received by the state receiving means, and repair transmitting means for transmitting repair instruction data to the outside in accordance with the processing state data managed by the data managing means.
The data processing apparatus as described above may comprise mounting managing means for managing mounting state data in which member identification data provided for respective ones of the plurality of members to be processed correspond to the position identification data for each member transfer jig, data integrating means for integrating the mounting state data with the processing state data to create integration state data, and integration managing means for managing the integration state data created by the data integrating means.
The member repair apparatus of the present invention for communicating data with the data processing apparatus according to the present invention comprises repair receiving means for receiving the repair instruction data from the data processing apparatus, repair supporting means for removably supporting the member transfer jig, repair performing means for repairing the member to be processed mounted on the member transfer jig supported by the repair supporting means, and repair control means for selectively controlling the repair operation of the repair performing means for each of the member mounting positions of the member transfer jig in accordance with the repair instruction data received by the repair receiving means.
The information storage medium of the present invention stores software readable by a computer and comprising programs for causing the computer to perform the steps of: receiving, from the outside, processing state data in which each of position identification data provided for each of a plurality of member mounting positions corresponds to one of a plurality of member current state data for representing a current state of member to be processed; managing the received processing state data; and transmitting repair instruction data to the outside in accordance with the managed processing state data.
The information storage medium as described above may further store programs for causing the computer to perform the steps of: managing mounting state data in which member identification data provided for respective ones of the plurality of members to be processed correspond to the position identification data for each member transfer jig; integrating the mounting state data with the processing state data to create integration state data; and managing the created integration state data.
The various means used in the present invention may be any which are formed to implement the respective functions. For example, dedicated hardware for producing a predetermined function, a computer provided with a predetermined function through a program, a predetermined function realized within a computer through a program, a combination thereof, and the like are allowed.
The information storage medium used in the present invention may be any hardware which previously stores programs as software for causing a computer to perform various processing. For example, ROM (Read Only Memory) and an HDD (Hard Disc Drive) which are fixed in an apparatus including a computer as its part, a CD (Compact Disc)-ROM and an FD (Floppy Disk) which are removably inserted into an apparatus including a computer as its part, and the like are allowed.
The computer used in the present invention may be any apparatus which can read programs formed of software to perform processing operations corresponding thereto. For example, an apparatus including a CPU (Central Processing Unit) as a main unit and various devices such as ROM, RAM (Random Access Memory), an I/F (interface) and the like connected to the CPU as required is allowed. As the execution of various operations corresponding to software by the computer in the present invention, the computer may control operations of various devices.